Martín Zarich believes that AI will transform customer service, but that there are still procedures that require physical presence. Real-time customer support for any service with AI would work 24/7. The CEO of BBVA Argentina considered that digital transformation is also about cultural change.
The CEO of BBVA Argentina, Martín Zarich, explained that Artificial Intelligence (AI) is “the present” of the financial industry, especially in customer service, and will continue to transform the future of banks. He pointed out that customers will only notice better financial logistics and fraud prevention.
In the forum Transformation, Digital Usability and Artificial Intelligence as a Transformation Model, the CEO of BBVA Argentina agreed that AI will help the financial system to interact with its customers, and that, in some cases, technology encourages banks to ” make that change.” In addition, he qualified for another advantage, such as 24/7 interaction.
BBVA: AI is Used in Argentina, but Clients “Don’t See It Directly”
However, Martín Zarich considered that the digital transformation of banks will be “more complex”, since not all of them have a digitally native business model. Regarding Argentina, he explained that there is a high link between financial services and cash, which still requires a physical network.
The CEO of BBVA Argentina explained the following:
“It is a great path to the future, but it is also the present. The customer does not see you directly, they will see your products. Obviously, it is a central issue of our logistics or fraud prevention, it is another dimension in which there is already artificial intelligence today, you just don’t see it directly as we are seeing it today with ChatGPT.”
For the CEO of BBVA Argentina, some services, such as mortgages, will require physical attention, or else, people will not trust virtual methods for this type of advice. He pointed out that AI is used in the country in aspects such as the analysis of expenses and income, virtual assistants, and optimization of cash reloading in the ATM network.
Days ago, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs discussed with the European Union the protection of personal data and AI. There, they agreed that AI will be essential for the productive revolution, but it requires changes to face specific challenges.
On August 11, BBVA Argentina posted on X that “Martín Zarich, executive president of BBVA in Argentina, participated in the event “The revolution of the digital economy”, organized by @LANACION, where he told how the Digital Economy is revolutionizing the financial industry.”
Argentina Accelerates National AI Strategy
Argentina is one of the countries in the region that is creating a national AI strategy. In May, the Ministry of Science announced that it was negotiating a loan with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). He did it to strengthen the Argentine scientific and university system, linked to data science and AI.
For the manager of BBVA Argentina, the adoption of AI or digital transformation is also about a cultural change:
“It is the most complex change, the one that does not come first, because there is a natural tendency in all of us, those of us who are not natives of this digital world, to think that the non-digital will continue to prevail. That persistence delays processes. You have to make a very big effort to change them.”
By Audy Castaneda
